Tdi buyback restitution delemma

1986.5supra_kid

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2012
Location
south Carolina
TDI
2010 jetta
My 6speed jetta was wrecked.

If insurance totals it I'm considering buying it back and taking it to vw for the buyback.

If it's not totaled then I'll fix the car and do the restitution check/fix.

I have my dpf and egr stuff still but it has been replaced with dpf delete and egr delete tune.

How will the "vw fix" effect being retuned with dpf delete when I take there restitution option?
 

nord

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Location
Southern Tier NY
TDI
All turned back to VW. Now a 2017 Hundai Tuscon. Not a single squalk in 10k miles.
Given our experience for three cars returned, if you drive the car in and there are no obvious flags such as a CEL, then modifications are never checked for nor mentioned. By the time they might be discovered you'll have your funds and it won't matter. That, or VW really won't care as the old system will be replaced if the car is to be re-sold.

Best guess is that officially VW cares. Unofficially VW wishes to place this all behind and feels it better to get the iron off the road and into custody. I must assume that somewhere in the chain is a line of inspectors who determine the future of affected vehicles. Some will be worth new emissions hardware and corrective software. Others will be determined to be best dismantled.

I suspect that new emissions hardware costs much less in reality than we might have been led to believe. My reasoning being that an "assembly line" process is much less expensive than an individual fix at a dealer, and that there would be very little in the line of a profit chain between the manufacturer and the finished vehicle coming out of a company shop.
 

nord

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Location
Southern Tier NY
TDI
All turned back to VW. Now a 2017 Hundai Tuscon. Not a single squalk in 10k miles.
Maybe NOT that simple. If you follow this plan, then VW will most certainly check for codes and possibly detect the tune. Then it might get complicated as VW would have every right to decline a fix and your "tune" would have become a very expensive experiment.

Whether placing the original hardware back in the car, clearing or addressing codes, then driving the vehicle for a period of time, will hide any modifications and satisfy VW, I can't say.

One thing I would do is find a sympathetic VW dealer and privately discuss the matter in advance of a fix. Sometimes one doesn't see certain data even when it appears on the diagnostic screen. Perhaps intentional ignorance for the benefit of a valued client? Who knows?
 

kbaisley

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2002
Location
Midwest
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI 5spd
My 6speed jetta was wrecked.
If insurance totals it I'm considering buying it back and taking it to vw for the buyback.
If it's not totaled then I'll fix the car and do the restitution check/fix.
I have my dpf and egr stuff still but it has been replaced with dpf delete and egr delete tune.
How will the "vw fix" effect being retuned with dpf delete when I take there restitution option?
The big question is if the insurance company totals it out, will they make it a salvage title. You would then have to get the vehicle inspected an a rebuilt title issued. It all depends on state law.
 
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